


And We Fly

by lazaefair



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Multi, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-21
Updated: 2016-01-21
Packaged: 2018-05-15 05:57:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5773948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazaefair/pseuds/lazaefair
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few days after Rey leaves on her quest to find Master Skywalker, Poe’s going through recruitment mission schedules when he gets a ping on his comm. “Commander Dameron to Communications.” And then, like words out of a misty legend, “Message from the Millennium Falcon.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	And We Fly

A few days after Rey leaves on her quest to find Master Skywalker, Poe’s going through recruitment mission schedules when he gets a ping on his comm. “Commander Dameron to Communications.” And then, like words out of a misty legend, “Message from the Millennium Falcon.”

He arrives at not quite a dead run.

He’s not quite braced for the worst, either. If this were a distress or mayday signal, they’d tell him, and he’d be called to the briefing theater instead. But as he also can’t think of any reason why the Falcon crew, on a top-secret mission under the tightest communication protocols, would be sending any messages to him - well, maybe he is braced. A little bit.

The staff in the communications center don’t seem particularly tense or worried, even with General Organa standing at one of the consoles. “General,” he says, trying to hide his agitated breathing while he salutes. 

“Commander,” she acknowledges with a nod, then turns back to her work with no further instructions or information.

A Mon Calamari comm officer wanders up to him before he can embarrass himself with more confusion.

“Personal message for you from the Millennium Falcon, sir,” she says and hands him a headset, directing him to a console. “Voice-only on tightbeam.” Of course, tightbeam is the most secure way to transmit a message, but they’re encrypted and compressed to hell and back, so visuals aren’t worth trying to send. He’s surprised the message has audio, even. 

He can feel the tension unwinding from his back as he sits, taking his cue from the unconcerned, business-as-usual atmosphere. 

_“Poe.”_

Rey doesn’t sound distressed or panicked. Maybe a bit shy. Poe knows the smile that just arrived on his face, solely from hearing Rey’s voice, is most likely fatuous in the extreme. He ducks his head lower.

_“Hyperspace is still boring, even though Chewie’s been teaching me the ins and outs of the Falcon. You should see the state the hyperdrive’s in-- but anyway, the thing is I keep thinking about Finn, and you, in his room, waiting for him to heal, and I--”_

Her voice breaks a little bit. Poe closes his eyes. There’s a moment where he breathes along with her quiet breaths, and then she comes back stronger.

_“I made up a new song. I know you’re still singing your songs to him, but I want you to play this for Finn tonight.”_

She is not tentative at all when she begins. They sang lullabies and counting songs and rhyming rounds together, that week in the medcenter - soft and low and fit to tear Poe’s heart into microscopic pieces. This is different. This is Rey, having survived Takodana and Starkiller and Kylo Ren, making a new song for herself out of everything she’s learned and absorbed in the week she spent on base, a defiant song for the new Rey and the new Resistance. 

_come you flyboys and flygirls,_  
_and fly-other-folk_  
_come you soldiers, the green and the old_  
_come you rebels and droids_  
_and all those employed_  
_resisting the first order’s hold_

The chords are already forming behind Poe’s eyelids - C, G, D, E minor - and his fingers twitch on the console, longing for his lasertar.

_so summon a grin_  
  _and you’re already winning_  
_to love is an act of rebellion_

He’s already known, bone-deep, that he’s spent the last week falling ass-over-teakettle in love. This? This feels like the flight stick between his knees, breaking atmo, the planet falling away hundreds of klicks beneath him, endless stars stretched before him.

_and we’ll fly_  
  _break the bounds of the ground, and laugh and burn brighter_  
_oh that’s why_  
  _and it’s part of the fight: to remember you’re more than a fighter_

Poe can barely breathe when Rey’s voice finally fades, euphoria buzzing through his veins in a way that seldom happens outside of the cockpit. He swallows down the gentle ache in his throat, blinks away the tears beneath his eyelids, hardly able to believe the preciousness of the gift she’s given him. 

“Sir?”

The comm officer’s kindly voice breaks into his reverie, and he takes a long moment to compose himself before he smiles up at her. He can’t read Mon Cal facial expressions particularly well, but he thinks she’s looking at him with compassion. Jesmin Ackbar, he recalls, niece to Admiral Ackbar. She must have arrived only in the last few days. Their trickle of fighters defecting from the New Republic has increased to a steady stream since Starkiller.

They’re all going to need something like Rey’s song, Poe thinks. It’s hope, and courage, and defiance in one.

“Are you all right, sir?”

“I’m fine, thanks for asking, Ensign.” He starts fishing around in his pockets for a datapad. “You’ve already cleared this transmission of security risks, I assume?”

“Of course, sir.”

“Thanks.” He plugs the datapad in and starts downloading the audio file. “Out of curiosity, what made you decide to join the Resistance, Ensign?”

Her answer is encouragingly prompt. “I lost family on Hosnian Prime. What the First Order did...it’s the Empire all over again, and I couldn’t stand by and do nothing. The New Republic Fleet’s still pulling itself together, and that’s just not going to be fast enough.” She pauses, then plunges ahead. “I was actually thinking of applying to the Starfighter Corps, sir.”

Poe smiles. “Good, we need good fighters like you. Come by the pilots’ lounge after dinner, if your duties permit it.”

“I...thank you, I will, sir.” Even on a Mon Cal face, the confusion is evident, but she seems game enough.

Poe nods at her and rises to leave. He’ll be in the pilots’ lounge tonight with Rey’s song arranged and set to lasertar accompaniment, but first, he has a visit he needs to pay to the medcenter. Finn is waiting for him.

**Author's Note:**

> So, after 10 years of writing fanfiction (and 15 years of reading it) I have written my first and only songfic. I'm sorry, it won't happen again. 
> 
> Inspired by [this fantastic post on Rey’s singing voice and Rey and Poe singing together](http://vrabia.tumblr.com/post/137291909766/i-love-all-the-poe-has-a-wonderful-singing-voice). The song and the lyrics are by @idiopathicsmile, and [it is indeed brilliant.](http://idiopathicsmile.tumblr.com/post/136660063263/so-paticmak-made-this-lovely-drawinganimation) Thank you both for your gifts to fandom.
> 
> Come find me on [on Tumblr!](http://lazaefair.tumblr.com)


End file.
